Puzzles—inclusive of riddles, games, optical illusions, enigmas, oracles, labyrinths—appeal to the individual human mind and to collective cultural traditions, from prehistory up to today, and around the globe. The motivation to "play" may lie in the reward: the "ah-ha" for pastimes and/or the "gotcha" when intellectual challenge is involved. Semiotics' own "magister ludi" Marcel Danesi has collected, curated, and clarified the addiction experienced by those lured onto the dialectical thin ice between logical reasoning and sheer imagination.

Myrdene Anderson, Purdue University, USA

Marcel Danesi, the world’s leading authority on puzzles, provides an insightful historical overview of the creative, psychological, and interactional role of puzzles in cultures worldwide. These cultural artifacts date from the dawn of history, and Professor Danesi illustrates clearly and convincingly how solving puzzles stimulates the imagination and the inventiveness of the individuals and the societies that produce them. These enigmatic forms constitute the brain’s tools for resolving problems and they are an essential component of human intellectual endeavors.

Frank Nuessel, University of Louisville, USA

How are puzzles solved before their algorithm is found? Non-algorithmically – using creativity of semiotic logic. This is what Marcel Danesi, a leading scholar of the Toronto Semiotic Circle, is demonstrating.

Kalevi Kull, University of Tartu, Estonia